Kyle Chandler Joins The Ever-Growing Cast Of Broken City

Kyle Chandler looking worried in Friday Night Lights
(Image credit: Peacock)

Now that Friday Night Lights has ended its run, it's time for Kyle Chandler to become a movie star, and that process has already started. Just this past summer he took on the lead adult role in J.J. Abrams' Super 8 and is currently in production on the next Ben Affleck-directed film, Argo. But if he's going to leave TV in the past and become a big screen actor he's going to have to start collecting more projects - so that's exactly what he's doing.

Variety has learned that Chandler has accepted a part in Broken City, the new movie from director Allen Hughes. Described as a political thriller, the film is about a detective (Mark Wahlberg) who is hired by the city's corrupt mayor (Russell Crowe) to find out who his wife's lover. The detective successfully finds the man, but he has been murdered. Barry Pepper will be playing a political candidate set to compete against Crowe in the upcoming election, and Chandler will be playing his right hand man, described as "a star in his own right but prefers working behind the scenes." As though that cast isn't impressive enough, other actors attached to the project include Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Griffin Dunne, James Ransone, Justin Chambers, Natalie Martinez and Alona Tal. The script was written by rookie Brian Tucker and is scheduled to be released on January 18, 2013.

As Super 8 was more about the kids than the adults, film audiences may not be fully aware of Chandler's talents yet, but fans of Friday Night Lights have been praising him for years (he won the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy earlier this year). His part in Broken City doesn't sound like it will be very big, but let's hope that it's a stepping stone to greater things.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.